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The next ship of the journey was not as spacious as the first one. To Jill’s astonishment she found that they could fit a room in an even smaller space than the last one. It held just a bed, a wall light and two drop-down shelves which would have to be raised at night in order to sleep without banging into them if she got up in the night to go to the toilet down the passage. Lucky me she thought, that I didn’t bring much with me. Food wasn’t as available either. The crew on this ship wasn’t as pampered as the last one either, and Jill found that because she was on a dependent fare she had to eat in the crew mess. After she got used to the hours though; she really liked the crew meals. The crew was generally friendly and easy-going. One of the purser’s crew had been very helpful, showing her where everything was located in the ship. They kidded and joked with him about adopting a mascot. She didn’t care as it made her feel a little less lonely so far from everything she’d ever known before.
His name was Journey Man. He was a conductor on the railroad, and a sometime stringer for the Corps de Chameleon, the imperial intelligence service. He watched the youngster leave the mess room, which was the third shift’s gathering spot, to head back to her room. He mentally checked his memory and realized that the girl was the person he was to conduct on his part of the railroad. The crew knew he was one of the purser’s office staff, but had no idea he was a conductor on the railroad. Only a few biopeople knew about the railroad and fewer non bios did. He had helped many people including one legendary bioperson who he had seen a couple of weeks back standing next to Sergeant Wilson. Now, here was his daughter traveling to Trena. He had to get her on to Trena. Safely!
By the time the ship had reached Rio Lobo, Jill was going stir-crazy. With no room on the ship to stretch her legs, she had to get off the liner for a bit. It had been over a week, a week of sitting around and hardly getting any opportunity to see the passenger level where the passenger gym was located. The crew wasn’t allowed to use it. As a “freeloader” according to some of the more snobby crew members, she deserved the bare minimum of privileges. She was thoroughly bored and felt cooped up. The stop at Rio Lobo was a transfer point. But she would have to stay overnight in the station. Having no money for a hotel she thought she would wander the station. She found a plaza after a bit and after enjoying the freedom of being able to walk more than fifty feet in any one direction, she sat down at a table in one of the outdoor cafes around the plaza.
Although she didn’t notice him, Journey Man was watching Jill as she left the ship. He let him was runrunning an the errand for the ship’s purser to pick up some packages waiting for them at the line’s station office. This had given him the opportunity to escort the girl around without the girl knowing about it. He was surprised when she had sat down in a restaurant patronized by the working boys and girls of Rio Lobo. She couldn’t have known that she had. When he realized that it was Thunder’s place, he smiled a bit wondering how Thunder would handle things. Thunder was the next station master in the line to get Miss Wilson down the line and owned the bar she had sat down in front of. She had likely picked it because it had a casual relaxed feel about it, with people strolling among the tables and chatting, then wandering away with someone. The naive girl had no idea what looked like a friendly atmosphere was the local meat market for 6 this part of the space station. It was the wrong place for a sheltered naïve girl to be sitting around in.
He watched her as she looked around and appeared to be a little self-conscience as the strolling men and even a few of the women gave her admiring glances. She hadn’t even realized yet that the regulars who worked thies stretch along the plaza were starting to act like they would like her to just move on. If they started feeling that Jill was trying to steal their business, it might get embarrassing or even dangerous. Memo was wondering how to let Thunder know that the girl was her next passenger for the railroad when he spotted his old friend.
Thunder, saw Memo and nodded. Since he had business to conduct and Jill was at the next station on the railroad he went on about his business. He chuckled when he remembered how the old prostitute had received her nickname. Before she had gotten out of the business a long time ago, she use to tell her clients she felt like a thunderstorm had washed through her after they had finished. It had a novelty that boosted the ego of most of the one-shot customers she had worked then. The locals thought it a clever tag line. She had given the business up and now ran one of those cafes that surrounded the plaza area. Hers was unique as it offered small private rooms behind her bar. She didn’t run a crew of “workers” anymore as they were all pretty much independent on this part of the station but she was quite willing to make a profit on their labors in her room rentals. Of course if someone just wanted to sleep during a layover in a clean, fresh smelling room that was just fine with her. Memo thought there had been some trouble she had been in once where she had gotten hurt badly, but he hadn’t ask her. It was her story to tell. She was past her prime now, but still able to work crowd control things got too rowdy. Memo never saw the cop approach his old friend.
Jill startled as an older woman sat down next to her.
“Going loner can be is dangerous in this neighborhood, I can protect you” The woman said softly, looking suggestively up and down Jill as she sat at her table.
Jill looked at the older woman bewildered not knowing what the woman was asking. Unsure of what the woman was even talking about and wondered why the woman was unable to stop staring at her chest. Even the boys at school had not given her the look like this woman was giving her, “Pardon?”
The woman leaned forward so that her chest was right in Jill’s line of sight, putting a hand on her thigh, and purred, “I can help you make a lot of imperials entertaining some of my clients.” Thunder bit her cheek to keep her face straight as she saw a new idea flare to life in Jill’s brain.
“I… you mean... No way!” Jill finally got the message, “Get away from me before I call for help!”
As if on cue, the young cop appeared at Jill’s side. “Is this woman bothering you miss?”
“Yes!” Jill answered seeing that the young man was a cop.
“Thunder you need to move on,” the young cop said helping Jill get to her feet.
“Just trying to grow my business,” Thunder, acted put out as she stood up. She thought with a hidden smile that twinkled behind her eyes, “There you go Sergeant Wilson. You went against your own to make sure that the marine who raped me years ago was brought to justice, I’ve just paid you back.”
“Where you headed miss?” The police officer asked as they walked away from the cafe.
“I am headed to Trena to join my father,” Jill answered, “I have a ten hour layover until my next ship.”
“This is no place to layover,” the police man commented. “I know of a place that you can stay and they will make sure you get to your next ship.”
“I don’t have much money,” She answered.
“Not a problem,” The young cop replied, “It is run by the Red Cross.”
“Oh,” Jill said picking up her small bag of things. “Then I guess I should take them up on the offer.”
“This way then,” The young police officer pointed the way.
It took a few minutes to walk the distance to the hostel.
“Big Sue,” The young cop greeted the intake worker, “Got room for another?”
“Sure!” the young woman replied, “Who do we have here.”
“Jill Wilson,” Jill answered.
“Alright,” the woman replied as she took out her data pad, “Let me get some information and…”
The young cop left and went back to Thunder’s place. When he got back young cop asked the old prostitute, “That what you wanted?”
“Perfect,” Thunder said and kissed him on the cheek, “Just perfect!”
“Found out who she is Thunder, or at least who her father is.” The cop continued. “I am impressed how
he helped you and others.”
“I still owe him,” Thunder commented, “This was only partial payment!”
“I’ll catch up latter,” he went on along his beat. He didn’t want the Sarge to know he had done a favor for this woman. Some of the older cops had problems with the old prostitute. He had always found her decent to him. To his knowledge she had not been afoul of the law in years. She was always well behaved around him and if she was involved in anything he could not find any evidence of it. He had of course heard that she was a station master on the Underground Railroad but couldn’t prove it.
A few hours later the Red Cross worker escorted Jill to her next ship. It was a little better one. The Star of Logan was a midsized liner that routinely went from Rio Lobo to Trena Station. Thankfully, it was only another week to Trena and she wasn’t discriminated against as she was on the last one. Every time the ship popped out of transit space, she was the first one in the ships tiny library, to see what had transpired on Trena. The asteroids hadn’t fallen on Trena, but the news media was filled with the current happenings there. When she read the Op-Ed piece that a Lord Rammer wrote condemning her father’s lack of a concise plan she was blistering mad. Although it had been years since she had seen her father, and didn’t really know exactly what he did now, and still in high school, and not really aware of what all was going on in Empire or especially on Trena; she felt that even she could see that after three weeks that it would be nearly impossible for anyone to have a coherent plan other than to just get off world as best you can.
Jill decided to train herself to be useful to her father. He wouldn’t have time for fancy welcome home parties and getting to know her all over again, so she had better just make herself an assistant that would know what to do and do it before it was needed. She felt that her father wouldn’t send her home to Mars if she was his right hand. Using the ships limited library she researched the Trena star system and everything that was printed about asteroids hitting a planet. It sometimes got really dry and technical, but she struggled through the information, glad she had taken advanced science courses back home.
The Trena system had only one habitable planet, with several smaller planets around a single G class star. Other than two asteroid belts the only other spectacular thing in the solar system was a gas giant. It had one or two small moons but nothing other than Trena was habitable. Jill sat back, as the news stories finally sank in, there was no place in the Trena system that the evacuees could go to. They would have to leave the system. The space habitats were not large enough to hold the population of seventy five million people.
Jill spent some time learning about Trena herself. If the planet was going to be forced to die, she wanted to be able to remember what its own special places had been like. She wanted to be able to replay in her mind what the Ice Caves and other places the captain had talked to her about looked like, because she now realized she might never get the chance to go see them. She started out learning the typical text book facts that anyone doing a school report would find. Trena had only about nine tenths of an Earth standard gravity, it was little farther from its star than Earth was from the Sun, and it had only a few continents. There was the big one that straddled the mid-portion of the planet that was simply called Main and the others smaller ones north and south of Main also simply called North and South. The main continent was temperate with mild winters and gentle summers, but there was also a desert of sorts in the southern half of the big continent. Most of Trena’s industry was in orbit. At least the real heavy industry was in orbit or scattered through the system, closer to those cursed asteroid belts, where the metals found in the floating rocks that industry needed were closer and cheaper to get to. There were a couple of exceptions. Boeing Space Works had a light space craft yard in northern Trenaport, and there was a furniture factory in the north of the main city of Trenaport.
There wasn’t much about what the birds sounded like wheeling over the gentle sea winds, what the Ice Caves reflecting sunlight off their icy exteriors looked like, what Trena’s fields of flowers smelled like after a rain. Only the people that lived there could tell her that. After exhausting the library on anything about Trena she could find, she went on to research what would happen when the asteroids struck Trena. There wasn’t much. What she had found out was not good at all and explained why the world had to be evacuated. A single big rock coming in at thousands of miles an hour would create a massive crater. If it was a big asteroid, the impact crater could go on for hundreds of miles around the impact area, splashing and splash dust into the atmosphere. The dust would obscure the sunlight from the star and prevent the necessary warmth and sunlight from reaching the surface of Trena. That might be survivable as she understood it; but Trena wasn’t going to be hit by one or two asteroids, but several thousand of all sizes. One or two wouldn’t cause the evacuation of the planet, or make it unlivable. Thousands would. One of the articles that had found its way to the ship was a science piece on what would happen when all these rocks hit Trena. The piece written by three scientists and concluded that it would not be a good thing to be on Trena after the rocks fell. They compared it to a nuclear winter that the ancients had feared would happen should the pre empire nations of Earth had ever launched their nuclear weapons at each other. They concluded that with the planetary damage, life would be nearly impossible on the Free World. She now fully understood why Trena had to be evacuated.
As she got closer to Trena she began to worry about her father. It had been five years since she last seen him. That could be a long time for people. She had changed a lot in that time, growing up from a twelve year old ruff-neck, smiling with her pigtails, and skinned knees to a near adult who had begun, who, according to a few boys at school, was attractive enough to ask to some of the school dances. He might not recognize her. She had changed in temperament too. She had been a bit of an air-head when she had last seen her father, but she was much more mature now, certainly. Being a blond was cool but being a smart blond was fun. The look on people’s faces when she answered stuff in school or talked to others and they found out she wasn’t an air-head blond; but a smart and intelligent young woman was something she rather enjoyed. Her father was in for a big surprised when he saw her. She wondered how much he had changed.
She also wondered how much he was going to yell at her. She realized that what she had done may not have been the smartest thing she could have done. Traveling on her own had been fun even though it had gotten much more boring after the first ship’s relatively spaciousness and the second one so cramped, and until she had met that woman on Rio Lobo, she been maybe just a little homesick, but not scared. The memory of the incident with the hooker was the reason why when the ship later docked for an eight hour layover at another station, she didn’t leave the ship. Her father wasn’t much of a yeller; he could or had been able to make his point without talking any louder than you would in normal conversation. But he had always been fair, and even when he punished her he had not been too extreme. At least that was what she remembered when she was little, now that she was supposedly more grown up, it might be different. If Grandma had heard she’d been in hot water at school or on the base like the time she was in that training area and got hit by accident from a stun grenade she would lower the boom! Knowing the Admiral, which is what Jill thought of her grandmother when she was being ‘all business’, there would be yelling with her. As the ship approach Trena Station, she wondered how much trouble she was really in.
What actually happened was beyond her wildest expectations.
Now as she waited anxiously for the crew to open the hatches, so she could get reunion with her father over with, she wondered what was taking so long for the crew to open the hatches. Finally the liner’s doors opened and people began to disembark. As she signed off of the ship, she heard a couple of ship’s officer talking.
“If the authorities had not guaranteed our safety I am not certain that the captain would have opene
d up.” The assistant purser was saying as he checked her off the ship.
“I was talking with Sparks a little while back,” the other officer who was standing next to the assistant purser remarked. “He was telling me of the rumors he had heard. There was a Theocracy flagged bulk carrier that was telling everyone on the ship to ship that the authorities were confiscating ships and press ganging crews. It was an out and out lie and only after the Queen came on the net and set the record straight did the captain decided to open up.”
“Well let’s get our people safely off the ship,” the other officer said.
When she stepped off the ship, she considered returning to its relatively quiet safety. Outside her ears were assaulted by the din of many voices. They all seemed to be shouting and Jill wished for the sanity that her little room on the liner had provided her. Jill set her face in determination and went forward into the chaos. She saw that many people were doing their jobs as best as they could, moving baggage, keeping security and checking paperwork. Other crowds of people seemed to be lined up behind a fenced area, where their faces showed a variety of emotions, grief, fear and anticipation being the most obvious. They looked hungrily at the ship she had just left, as if it were a five star meal and Jill nervously began to move a little faster away from it. The thought of being between the ship and them frightened her.
As Jill Wilson waited anxiously for the gate to the dock to open so she and her fellow passengers could enter the station proper; she reflected on the two week trip from Mars to Trena. It had been uneventfully monotonous. Except for when that old prostitute on Lobo had tried to recruit her when she had been laying over to catch her next ship, she had had no excitement. After Lobo she had stuck to the ship. The crew and everyone were talking about the situation in the Trena System, and what it meant to them. As the gate opened Jill Wilson gathered up her one small bag and went through the gate.
Jill quickly moved to follow the few others that were disembarking toward a row of tables and desks. Jill had traveled with her grandmother and been through customs at various places. None had looked this shakily put together. This set up struck her as having been slapped together with whatever was handy and having an extra portion of security forces. Most of the people at the table looked very official and closer to the crowds of tense people behind the fence. Jill saw one thin man jump the line and try to run towards ship she had been on. He was tackled and drug off to another area.
As she approached customs she thought she saw a tall thonian woman that she knew. She towered over Jill at six foot six and was very muscular looking. Although humanoid looking, her light gold skin, and grey hair speckled with black, and her six fingered hand did little to hide she was a non-earth human female. When she got closer she found that it was a friend of her father’s. Commander Atomi. She had met the thonian and her husband several years before when her father had been assigned to Andrea’s World, an independent world that her father and the commander had been assigned to be the joint MP unit for the liberty port.
She was almost a fixture in their home. Not only was the Commander a close friend of her father’s, the commander’s daughter Lamile had become a close friend of hers as well. On Andrea’s they had been nearly inseparable. Then over the years when they could both sets of parents had served on joint assignments. Seeing the thonian, Jill was relieved to spot a friendly face. She wished she could turn time back to those days of her young childhood, playing with Lamile, joking with her ‘Aunt’. Aunt Mylea always insisted that Jill refer to her that way, saying that ‘Commander Atomi was much too formal for family and Jill was over too much to be anything but family!’
“Aunt Mylea?” Jill approached the Thonian wondering why the tall huskily built alien was there. She tried to remember the last letter from Lamile; it had been over three years ago. Then it didn’t mention anything about a change of duty station for her parents. Then it hit, her surrogate aunt was not dressed in the dark gray of the Thonian Space Service; but dressed in a scarlet tunic and dark black slacks with a red strip on the seams. On each shoulder was a single star. On her left sleeve was a gold patch. The patch was that of a horse wearing a crown, around the patch were the words Trena Royal Mounted Patrol. Not that of the Thonian Space Service’s 83rd Military Police Battalion. Her father, in that last precious year he before he had left her, had helped the Thonians to stand that unit up and no one had really been surprised that her Aunt and her lifemate had been chosen to be the inaugural command team of the unit. When she and her father had returned to Mars and the empire it had broken her heart to say good-bye to Lamile.
“Hi Jill,” the older woman said seeing her old friend’s daughter for the first time in years. She had filled out standing almost five feet eight inches tall. The Pig tails had been replaced by shoulder length blond hair. The youngster, although obviously somewhat nervous with all this commotion, still stood with a poise that Mylea thought some of her younger officers could have learned when she was still in the service.
“Aren’t you in the wrong uniform?” Jill worried that although the woman still looked ready and fit, also looked haggard and tired.
“No. I had to leave the space service. The TMP hired me.” Her aunt replied.
“Are you a General now?” Jill asked pointing to the star on her aunts shoulder boards.
“Sort of; I am a deputy chief for the Mounties,” Her aunt replied.
“Why are you here?” Jill asked suspecting that she knew why. She was sure that she was about to be turned around and marched back to Mars.
Mylea paused before she answered her young friend being distracted by an old man sweeping up some liter and thought she knew who the man was. Kellogg, a notorious one time closer with Ebio that was the bane of the police authorities on Trena and the occasional Ebio security officers who were closing fleeing Biopeople’s files on Trena. She was wondering if she should park Jill for a moment and arrest the man; but when she looked from Jill back to where the old man had been working, he was gone. Rumor had it he was not part of Ebio any longer so he wasn’t one of the people who she was up there to protect Jill from.
“I am here to escort you to down to your father,” Mylea said surprising the teen. Then seeing Jill’s small bag she frowned before she continued, “Is that all you have?”
Jill nodded.
She wanted to scold the young woman about being inadequately prepared for travel. Then her frown softened as she remembered her friend had left in the middle of the night and didn’t want to let anyone know she was running away.
“You mean that you aren’t going to put me on a transport back to Mars?” Jill asked.
“No! Lisa talked your father out of it,” The thonian replied and almost giggled, “I guess I should say we. Your father has never been able to resist us when Lisa and I tag team him.”
“This Lisa wants me to stay?” Jill asked dumb founded. She had thought that it had been Lisa who had convinced her father to leave her behind.
“Lisa never wanted to leave you behind Jill,” He aunt said, “that was your father’s decision. He was concerned for your own safety.”
“Why are you here and not them?” Jill asked suspecting the thonian was lying to her.
She saw the look on the earth girl’s face and said, “Both Michael and Lisa would be here if hadn’t been for their security detail. The detail doesn’t like the station. They feel it can’t be secured enough for your family. Even the Queen is not allowed up here right now.”
“Oh,” Jill said looking around at the commotion. She thought she understood.
“The security detail thought that it would be better if someone you knew came and picked you up. Since I knew you, they thought I was the right person to get you to safety. I was also likely to be someone you would trust. The detail thought that there might be an Ebio team following you. We got word that there was one heading this way.”
Jill didn’t know what to say. She felt dizzy. She had been all set to argue
her case before this Lisa, thinking she would have to be the one she needed to convince not to send her back to Mars. Now trying to keep what she privately called her military face on, she wouldn’t cry, but she knew she was close to it. All the relief she had felt just seconds ago at the sight of a familiar face, was gone. It was part of a new internal struggle of emotions; relief at finally arriving, worry about what would happen now, love mixed with anger for a father she had been without for far too long, and now Ebio following her. It was almost too much for her to deal.
“Is this all you have?” Mylea asked again seeing the single bag the girl was carrying.
“Yes,” Jill said.
“Let’s get you through customs.” Mylea tried to sound stern, but was having a hard time of it. As she now took the teenager’s shoulder and pointed her in the direction of the entry gates, she tried to avoid looking at the child that was almost another daughter to her as the girl’s lower lip was beginning to tremble and a glisten of a tear was beginning to stream down her check. She was supposed to give Jill the ‘Treatment’, taking her through the regular customs procedures for a person attempting to enter a secure border during times of crisis. This would include several embarrassing scans and interrogations to ascertain exactly whether the incoming person was an added security risk or not to the kingdom. Looking and listening to this girl on the verge of womanhood, trying to act mature and grownup, willing to do whatever was necessary to enter the kingdom to see her father, Mylea couldn’t do it. She knew that Michael, the girl’s father wanted; to let his daughter know how a runaway could be treated; but she just couldn’t do it. Jill wasn’t her daughter, but she remembered bandaging up her knees, and watching late night holo flicks with her and her daughter. There were other ways to get her father’s message across.
Once away from the customs gate Mylea turned to the young woman and said, “Who did your papers? They look good for forgeries.”
Jill looked at the woman not knowing what to say. She had realized immediately that papers that the beta bioperson on Mars had given her were not the same ones she had made prior to leaving Mars.
“Never mind,” Mylea continued, “You will be getting new papers anyway.”
“I will?” Jill asked, “You mean if dad doesn’t send me back.”
“Well your father is furious with you.” The Thonian replied. “But Lisa and I have cooled him out a bit. But only a bit! He won’t be sending you back.”
“Oh really,” Jill wasn’t convinced she expected nothing less from the man who left her years ago. She was not convinced it wasn’t this Lisa who was calling the shots. She still needed him. She missed him terribly. “This Lisa will actually let me stay?”
Mylea looked around for someplace private to talk with the girl, finding a VIP lounge she took the girl into it. Thankfully there was no one in the lounge.
“Sit down!” Mylea said more harshly than she intended, as she triggered the door so that it would let the space station staff outside know that they shouldn’t be disturbed unless there was an emergency.
The girl sat down.
“Your father is under a lot of pressure right now Jill.” Mylea sat down so she wouldn’t tower over her young friend, “He has a lot of worry. You saw that zoo out there?” the girl nodded, “That’s just part of the worry. Those are all people whose home government is allowing them to return home. But that’s only part of the evacuation he has been able to make happen. He is really worried about you, and so is Lisa! Yes Lisa! But she’ll let him make the decision about you and give him hell if she doesn’t like it! Right now she is in your corner. You being here puts him under more pressure.”
She looked at her aunt and asked, “Should I go home?”
“No way,” Mylea spoke softly, she smiled, “you might be able to distract him from some of the issues he’s dealing with.”
“But won’t that cause problems?” Jill asked.
“Yep,” Mylea answered, “but no more than if there wasn’t an evacuation and he was just being a dad, a lifemate, and a police officer.”
“I see.” Jill commented, “And he isn’t going to send me back?”
“No, not now,” Mylea answered. “When the admiral sent word you had run away to Trena he did want to ship you back to Mars.”
“Oh,” Jill said. “Why?”
“He doesn’t think he can protect you.” Mylea said, “You know that Ebio has been hunting him for years and that they have a price on his head?”
“No, I wasn’t aware of that,” Jill said. “He hasn’t been very informative lately. I got a letter saying he was running from Ebio but I have never really understood why. I thought it might have something to do with this Lisa person.”
“Yes,” Mylea said, “but not the way you think. Ebio wants them both for something they know. I don’t know what. Because of Ebio, he wants you off world and on Mars. He feels it is safer for you on Mars at the Admiral’s estate. It’s going to get crazy here and while the Queen gave him her protective detail and they among are the best I have ever seen, Michael just doesn’t know if they are good enough to stop a Closer Team from Ebio harming all of you.”
“Closer team,” Jill asked bewildered, “What’s that?”
Mylea thought for a minute not sure she should tell the girl everything. She wasn’t sure it was her place to do so. But if Jill was foolhardy enough to go rushing into danger, she had better know just what she was going to be facing. ‘Just like Lamile, thinks she knows everything even when she doesn’t. Time she gets the “Treatment” all right, just not the one her father intended.’ Mused before finally saying aloud, “Jill, I’m not sure your father would approve of this, but you are old enough to learn about the current situation; especially as it involves you. What do you know about Ebio?”
“They make clones, or as they call themselves Biopeople. There is a lot of arguing as to whether or not they are property or free people, because they are creative thinkers, and capable of supporting themselves. At least that’s what the holo casters say. I agree, how anyone could think they are programmable robots is beyond me!”
“Well, that’s not quite what Ebio thinks. They and their engineers spent quite a few decades developing the Biopeople. Taking the very earliest research files and going from those early trials developing sheep and cats, and finally creating the biopeople. There was a lot of arguing when they first announced that one! People like Theocracy feel that only a deity can create life and that for mortals, to play with their deities’ creative rights is sacrilege. Finally the governments of the various star nations and colonies stepped in and set rules. Some decided to not allow the Biopeople in, and shipped them back whenever they crossed their borders. Some like Trena here consider them a sentient life form treating them as such, refusing to treat them as property. Some treat them as slave labor, meaning the biopeople are treated as robotic tools and cannot own anything, including themselves!”
“Grandma said that Ebio people are profit mad tyrants.” Jill injected remembering how incense when her grandmother spoke about Ebio.
“She is a bit harsh, but she wants them to do the right thing and release all claims on the Biopeople. The company sees their ownership as just trying to make profit for their stock holders. They sunk planets full of mounits on the research and development of the bios and they see that tech as theirs. They have ruthlessly protected their patents and trade secrets.”
“Why don’t people see that the clones are just like us?” Jill asked.
“They don’t want to. Having the bios do the boring routine, messy and dangerous jobs frees the ‘real’ people to do things that are exciting or simply more fun. They are blind to the slavery because if they’d acknowledge it and free the biopeople, they might have to do those jobs again. Now back to the question you started with, Closer Teams.
“Ebio sees any act of independence or rebellion in a clone as dangerous behavior. Occasionally when a few bios try to break for freedom, the
y chose to act violently in their attempts and killed people trying to stop their escape. Ebio uses these graphic scenes to scare people into thinking that an uncontrolled clone is mentally unstable and dangerous. That got expanded when a group of outside activists tried to assist an escape.”
“The Eclipse 7,” Jill shuddered she recalled the group that blew up half a small town as they tried to close down an Ebio plant.
“Exactly, they never meant, I believe to cause that explosion. I think that in trying to do the break-out during the eclipse, when all electronics and communications were shut down, they triggered something, some chemical imbalance that started a chain reaction when everything powered back up. But the company convinced everyone that the 7 were nothing but terrorists and in trying to free ‘mentally unstable clones’, the ‘terrorists’ were just as dangerous and needed to be taken down for public safety.
“A Closer Team is how Ebio takes cares of escaped clones and company renegades. They are trained to recover property or to eliminate threats to Ebio. Usually they kill the bio or person; thus closing their files. That’s why they are called Closers. People look the other way; Closer sounds much nicer than murderers or assassins.”
Jill stared at the thonian. The angry face bore no resemblance to her loving Aunt Mylea. She had never seen such a face on the woman before. She started to say something, when she realized that she couldn’t put her thoughts into words. Her mouth hung open as her brain rushed to catch up.
Mylea felt a slight vibration from her communication unit. It was a signal from the crew her of transport wanting to know where they were. They were supposed to be aboard by now. She knew she couldn’t keep it waiting so she stood up and unlocked the door. There was a special security team aboard the landing craft that would come to see if she was in trouble. She pressed a stud on the communicator then she escorted the still thinking girl towards their transport. She mentally braced herself for the questions that were sure to come. She hoped the girl would wait until they were in a more private setting, so that she could answer the girl without being overheard having a guarded conversation.
“There you are,” an older woman who was the agent in charge of Jill’s protective agent called as they approached the courier. She was starting to get worried. The station was not the safest place in the kingdom right now. She should have gone with her; but the chief had told her no; in unmistakable terms.
Mylea smiled as she handed the bag to the agent, “nothing to worry about Jenny. We can leave now.”
“As soon as you are aboard and seated we’ll get underway.” The woman about her aunt’s age replied.
“Aunt Mylea I have never heard any of this,” Jill slowly said as they boarded the craft. She secretly hoped that by using the friendly family name, the safety that she had just started to feel when she saw her aunt would return. All she felt now was frightened and alone. She looked around and saw two other people who were sitting in the back of the passenger cabin. They were trying to blend in with the bulk head. The older woman took a seat among them.
“That doesn’t surprise me. Your father and grandmother worked terribly hard to shield you from all this. That was why he left Earth.” She lapsed into silence as they took their seats. After they were seated in the executive space air mission spacecraft, Mylea continued, “I most likely shouldn’t have told you any of this.”
Jill pondered what her surrogate aunt why saying as the small space ship known as a landing craft taxied along the hangar deck she asked, “How dangerous is it?”
“I am not really sure. You’ll have two, maybe three trained agents who will be with you whenever you leave the palace. If things look suspicious or we get information that Ebio teams were sighted, they might even stay with you inside your home. There will be a large group around your home at the palace. Jill,” Mylea said, staring straight into the girl’s eyes, “this is very important. When you get this team, take their advice and don’t try to fool with them or to try and lose them. Until we know what Ebio might do, we can’t take chances with any of your family’s safety. A planet full of people depends on everyone doing what they need to, when they need to! So far I have escaped the necessity of having a protective detail; mostly because your dad hasn’t appointed me as his deputy. When that happens I’ll have a couple of keepers of my own also.”
“That’s right this is the first time you have worked for him,” Jill surprised the thonian police officer. She looked at the young woman as Jill continued, “I had nothing much to do but read on the trip here.”
“I didn’t think I was news worthy?” Mylea remarked.
“You name wasn’t mentioned,” Jill continued, “but from what you said, you are a police officer in the Trena Royal Mounted Patrol, and Dad who was one of the instructors at the academy, was reached down for and made the Marshal of the Trena Constabulary making him the chief cop, fire fighter, customs officer, building inspector, EMT, etcetera for the planet. Doesn’t that mean you work for him?” Jill spoke non-stop as if she was afraid that she wouldn’t be allowed to finish what she was saying and looked at her Aunt for assurance. She had thought she knew what was going on and now she was beginning to think she had jumped in over her head, and would soon regret it.
“It does,” The woman said, “I have not been working for him directly. I have been working for the Queen and sometimes run errands for him like now. But I’m not working for him directly. The Queen thinks I should be his deputy or chief of staff. I am not pushing. Your father and I are familiar with each other’s methods and the Queen wants someone to keep her informed. She’s learned that when Michael gets his eyes fixed on a goal, he sometimes forgets to let the rest of us in on the plan. I’d rather be back at Mounty headquarters. Chief James, my boss is holding my watch down.”
“Do you expect to be made his deputy?” Jill asked.
“Maybe,” Was all that Mylea commented. She herself was not convinced it would be a good idea or a bad one for that matter to be her friend’s deputy. She had been his commander every time they had worked together. Granted she thought a couple of times they should have made him an officer and be placed in charge of the assignment; but most of the time he had been her sergeant when they had worked together.
“Chief,” a Mounty poked his head out of the cockpit, “We’re not going to land at Serenity they want us at Fletcher. Seems that is where the Marshal is.”
“Okay,” Mylea said, “Would you call the MP unit there and ask them if they can get me back to the palace.”
“Chief,” The Mounty answered, “Transportation is waiting for you.”
“Thank you officer,” the thonian replied as the landing craft settled to the ground. It then taxied over to a hanger and was pulled into the structure. That surprised Mylea. She figured they would go to the flight line and leave the small space ship out in the open. When the landing craft was secured and the ground crew opened the main hatch the plain clothes men and women in the back of the landing craft disembarked first making sure that it was secured. One of them a Thonian had to duck to get through the passenger hatch. He was carrying some sort of riffle. Once out of the elsy Jill noticed there were a lot of people in the hangar. None of them were working on the landing craft that had their sides open looking as if the work on them had been interrupted. All of the people were in plain clothes standing by the doors to the hangar.
“This way Mrs. Atomi,” a striking red head said to them as she showed Jill and Mylea to the door where the two plain clothes men were standing watch. She noticed a tall woman and a small child standing near a door to the office they were heading to. She thought it might be her step mother.
“Marshal,” The red head called as she opened the door, “Chief Atomi, and Miss Wilson.”
“Thank you Georgia,” Her father returned, “Tell the team we’ll be moving in a half an hour or so.”
“I’ll tell Mac,” the protective agent replied as she let them have their privacy.
“
Michael,” Mylea said, “I didn’t notice anyone watching us on the station. Well, I thought I saw that closer Kellogg; but he disappeared before I was certain. If anyone saw anything, it looked like I was there to pick up a VIP. Going through the VIP customs gate instead of the general public gate might have allowed us to lose anyone who was trying to follow Jillian. I cannot of course guaranty it.”
Mylea could tell that her old sergeant was mad at her. His posture and expression said that he was more than a little upset at her. She recalled she had not seen that look on his face since the then staff sergeant Michael Wilson had read her beads that first time on Gregory’s World when she had rushed that drunk with the laser riffle. She was about to say something when he began to speak.
“Chief Atomi,” Mike said icily cold, but the look his old friend gave him told him he had better not start. It dawned on him that Mylea instincts about how to handle people were often much better than his. Also Jill had been part of Mylea’s family since his child was a toddler. She couldn’t give Jill the treatment as she had been ordered to. Shaking his head as if to clear it, he continued, “Mylea, thank you very much, for picking up Jill.”
“You’re welcome Michael,” Mylea replied wondering if becoming her old friend’s deputy was a wise thing. She turned to Jill, “When you get settled look me up I’ll take you to dinner. We have some catching up to do. I’ll tell Lam that you’re here. She’ll want to see you!”
“I don’t know when that’s going to be!” Jill said dejectedly, “That depends on what Dad’s going to do. If he doesn’t send me back to Mars I may be grounded forever!”
“Close,” Michael said, “Not quite that long, but you may be old and grey before I let you out of someone’s sight! Thanks again Mylea. Lisa wanted me to ask you come to dinner tonight.”
“Sure!” Mylea replied, “I’ll bring Lamile! She’ll be happy to see you Jill!”
Mylea left then and Wilson turned towards his daughter, the two of them alone for the first time in years. He marveled at how much she had changed and wondered if she really still thought of him as her loving father. “I promised both Lisa and Mylea I would not be a hairy beast with you. I agreed with them that I couldn’t turn you over my knee and tan your fanny like I did when you were very little. I am also aware that while you may be the age of some of my youngest recruits, I can’t treat you like one.”
“Jill,” He ran an exasperated hand through his greying hair, “it’s a good thing for you, that people owe your grandmother and me some favors. You were never alone. Once we knew you were headed here, there was someone from imperial security with you the entire time. Even on Rio Lobo, where I understand old Thunder got you a little excited!”
“Are you talking about the hooker that tried to set me up in business, that might be an understatement,” Jill said, “I never knew her name. Did you ask her to do that?”
“No.” her father a smile crossing his face, “Thunder is a professional associate of mine. She propositioned you on her own. I heard about it later. She sent me a message saying she was sorry if she had frightened you too much, but she needed to convince you to skedaddle to safety.”
Jill looked at her father not certain what to say. She looked in his deep blue eyes unflinchingly, taking stock of him. Almost forty eight years old graying at the temples, he had kept in shape. As he stood up, she suddenly remembered how tall her father was; nearly six foot six, and not an ounce of fat on him. He came to her and hesitatingly hugged her. He stepped back and lifted her face to look at him. There was seriousness in his eyes, but there was nervousness about him also, that suggested to her, that she might just get through this in one piece, and get to stay here on Trena.
“You scared the crap out of me.” He said, “Don’t you ever run away like that again! Once we knew where you were going we had things under control, but there are people who would take obscene pleasure in kidnapping you, and using you for any number of purposes. You are old enough to understand that not all the people you meet are who they say they are. You scared the crap out of us.”
“I am sorry,” the girl apologized, “I didn’t mean to worry you!”
“I know,” her father replied looking down to her as he towered over her. His expression softened as he spoke, “It is time that you learn some things, before you make any other foolish decisions”
She wondered what he was going to tell her. What her aunt had told her was causing her some turmoil. Now her father was going to explain even more things to her. She wondered when she would ever get the chance to think about the things Aunt Mylea had told her. She quickly sat herself down on a nearby chair, looking up toward her father.
“Jill,” Michael sat down on the couch. “I asked that your grandmother not tell you some things until I felt the time was right. We never talked about your other grandparents; you were only told they weren’t around and couldn’t be a part of your life. We also never brought up my mother. My mother, my birth mother, we were estranged before you were even thought of. She was rich beyond your wildest dreams. I didn’t know I was rich! I didn’t find out until shortly before I retired. I inherited all her riches. Shortly before I discovered Lisa in my brig I found out that I was the sole living heir to the Hazelton fortune. The Judge Advocate General requested that I meet with him. Not sure why I was being called into the JAG’s office, I talked to one of the sergeants who worked in the office and found I wasn’t up on charges.
“Still wondering why I was being called in the JAG spaces I went to the meeting.” He paused for a moment then continued. “I was surprised that not only was the JAG there; but so was the commandant, General Alphine. The JAG put it quite plainly. He suggested that I should retire from the Marines. I had enough time in, and with my injuries I could take a medical disability. I could retire any time I wanted. I asked why? It was the commandant who explained, that with my recent inheritance I could be a disciplinary problem. They were politely telling me I had to leave.”
He paused as if he was gathering his thoughts.
“I asked how long I had to make a decision. General Alphine said they were in no hurry; but they weren’t going to wait forever. I said I understood and started to leave pondering what to do. Before I left, the JAG suggested I talk with a Major Stanley Prescott. He had been briefed and would be able help me. They really didn’t want to cashier me.”
“So I went to see Stan,” Jill thought she knew who her father was talking about. There was a Stanley Prescott who was her grandmother’s attorney, who she’d met a couple of times.
“He explained why the Marine Corps were asking me to retire,” her father continued getting her attention, “It was for my own good as being independently wealthy could cause problems if I were to stop being the outstanding marine I was. I was the only noble marine NCO. That caused some problems since most nobles were officers. So in the end run, as much as I didn’t want to, I put in my papers.”
“I was waiting to begin my terminal leave when Lisa showed up in my brig,” He paused again, smiling again, as he continued. “She had been arrested for being a impersonating a human being and a Navy Corpsman. Biopeople are prohibited from joining any of the imperial services. I don’t know how she pulled it off; but she did! So that caused some conniption fits. What was I to do? The only punishment for the offense is to be discharged from the service. She didn’t fight her discharge and I figured I would bring her home to Mars. ”
“But that didn’t happen,” Jill injected.
“No it didn’t.” her father groused, “I had finally gotten my head around my good fortune. I was even looking forward to working for Ebio. Then we got word Martha Hozenbur was coming to pick Lisa up. I called Ebio and told them I had Lisa and I would bring her to Corporate.
“They couldn’t tell me no,” Her father said, “When Lisa told me why she was impersonating corpsman, I knew I couldn’t take her back to Ebio. I wanted her to turn state witness; but she refused. I still don’t know the whole story!”
&
nbsp; Jill could hear the frustration in her father’s voice.
“We had to leave the empire.” He continued, “We had to go somewhere, where we could live without fear of Ebio capturing us. When we left the empire we didn’t know where we would wind up. I had to leave you with mom for two reasons. One it was too dangerous for you to be with us. The other reason is that one of us; me, or you had to be here so that our fortune wouldn’t be stolen by Ebio and used to cause greater harm. I was aware of some things that the general public isn’t. It was one of the reasons I left the marines and looked forward to being part of Ebio. Getting the evidence we needed to close the company down! As you know that didn’t happen!”
Jill, her thoughts in complete turmoil from everything being revealed to her, could only nod
“I was afraid that if I disappeared EBio would take over my shares and use them for even more evil. So I had Major Prescott set up a trust fund for you. I turned my stocks and holdings over to that trust fund in your name. It has been managed by your grandmother, and a good friend of mine, General Alphine. They have more financial savvy than I could ever hope to have. This was done so that you would be taken care of since I couldn’t be there, and to have a Hazelton still part of EBio. Now isn’t the time to tell you what you own, only that if you chose, you never have to work a day in your life. That you can’t spend your money fast enough to go broke in your lifetime. Because of this, your personal safety is very important. You have never been the subject of a kidnap plot that I know of. We have tried to make you an uninviting target by making sure you never knew you had the best security money could buy and not letting the press know you were the heir to such a big fortune. Using Dad’s name, not Mom’s, made it easier not to be associated with the Hazelton fortune. For your safety you must continue to act as if it doesn’t exist and not worry about the investing part of it. There is a staff of experts that your Grandmother and the General oversee to make sure you don’t have to.”
Lisa.” Her father spoke to her, “Seems Lisa was owned by EBioe prvd to tof my property. When I did I learned some of why Hozenbur wa
I don’t know how she pulled it off; bu
bioperson
Start1
accumulated enough points that I was more than eligible for retirement. Couploe with the injuries I had received I commandant came to me I didn’t want any of it. I thought my inheritance was tainted by blood. I saw early on how evil EBio was and I didn’t want to have anything to do with it. I tried to give it up.
“Well the courts wouldn’t let me,” her father continued, “So I had to keep all of. I just let it accumulate. When I did use it I tried to use it for good.
“When I left Earth, I knew that if I went MIA, ’sIt board are sometng else,”
for that type of thing. Then Lo leave the empire. But I couldn’t just leave.
Every Last Mother's Child Page 30
